Just Weight Heavy into Fitness

No-nonsense store sells workout equipment, not sporting goods

Just Weight, a specialty fitness store that opened in February, is not a sporting goods store, the owners say.

“We’re everything that they’re not,” said Barry Wilber, 33, the most vocal of the fledgling store’s owners. “There’s a lot of stuff that you just won’t find in this combination in any other store.”

Data collected by the National Sporting Goods Association, based in Mount Prospect, Ill., seem to support his point: The group mainly tracks consumer spending and participation in outdoor-type activities, apparently overlooking the demographic to which Just Weight caters.

That would be anyone from age of 7 to 67, Wilber said.

With Just Weight’s emphasis on individual sports and fitness activities such as core strength training, yoga, Pilates, boxing and mixed martial arts, “any athlete can come in here and find something to work out with,” said Joey Freeland, 23, store manager and self- avowed fitness nut.

A tour of the store doesn’t draw in the eye with big, colorful displays or bright lights. There’s a little bit of color – some of the hand weights and fitness balls are brightly hued – but the floor is concrete, and the store smells of new rubber and metal. It’s easy to navigate and is well-organized.

The focus is on fitness, not image, Wilber said. It’s a no- nonsense, no-gimmicks approach that seems to be working so far. To date, the company has spent no money on advertising, and there are no plans to start. Even so, the business has grown month over month.

“The most common reaction from customers is people ask if it’s a franchise, if there are other stores, but there aren’t. It’s just us,” Wilber said.

Though the biggest challenge seems to be getting the store’s name out there, he said, the owners prefer building good word-of-mouth advertising.

The products they carry are so specialized that they don’t feel there’s a listing that adequately describes what they carry. There’s not even a base industry number for sales that they could use to formulate a marketing plan, Wilber said.

“We won’t be listed as sporting goods because we’re not,” he said. “Our customers are helping us build our store. We’re bringing the things they’re asking for.”

Jaime Sanchez is a tonal chiropractor who happened to be walking past the store before it even had a sign up last spring.

As a fitness enthusiast as well as a health advocate, he went inside and was immediately struck by the pricing and selection, he said. “It’s a wide selection for people who are into fitness.”

Large sporting goods stores carry so many different kinds of equipment that they only scratch the surface of each kind of product they carry, Sanchez said.

He noticed a lot of items that average people must normally order over the Internet, with prices comparable to Internet prices but without the added shipping fee, he said.

And he was struck by the store’s line of weight systems that allow people to work out using free weights “but with the safety of a machine,” he said.

Freeland, the store manager, said he often works out when the store isn’t busy.

“This is a lifestyle for me – just trying to stay fit, stay in shape,” he said. “I love coming to work.”

Where and when

What: Just Weight

specialty fitness equipment.

Where: 7475 N. La Cholla Blvd., Suite 414, outside Foothills Mall on the northeast corner.

Phone: 229-0072.

Store hours: Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

* Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at 434-4078 or sshelton@azstarnet.com.